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Summary
- Amazon has revealed its plan to give a special bonus of $300 and $150 to its frontline full-time and part-time employees, respectively
- The company will be spending a total of $2.5 billion, close to £1.84 billion in 2020 by giving out incentives and special bonuses
E-retail giant Amazon Inc has announced a special recognition bonus of more than $500 million as a gesture of appreciation to its frontline employees, who have been rigorously working with the company through the coronavirus pandemic. The good news has boosted the morale of Brits and others across the world working with Amazon with the festive season round the corner.
The company will be rolling out a bonus of $300 to its full-time operations workers and $150 to part-timer workers, if they have been employed with the e-commerce giant for the whole December month.
Addressing the employees through a blog post, Amazon senior vice president of global operations Dave Clark said this holiday season would be extraordinary and that he was grateful to his teams who have been playing a vital role in continuously serving their communities.
He added that the company would be spending a total of $2.5 billion, close to £1.84 billion in 2020 by giving out incentives and special bonuses. The amount also includes a thank you bonus of $500 million (around £374 million) which was announced in June.
In this quarter only, the company has invested over $750 million in additional pay for its frontline hourly workforce, apart from the industry leading $15 national minimum wage.
He stated that the teams have been doing amazing work in serving the customers' essential needs and helping the socially distanced families to celebrate their holiday season. He said that he had never been so grateful and proud of his teams.
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Company Updates
In October, Amazon had revealed that between the 1 March and 19 September, more than 19,000 frontline workers in the US had been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Since March, the company has put in a lot of money on investments related to coronavirus such as enhanced cleaning measures, safety gears for its employees, etc. The double overtime pays and temporary wage increases came to an end in June, which was issued at the beginning of the pandemic. Despite this, workers at the warehouse had expressed their disappointment and annoyance at their hazard pay being cut even when the pandemic is on. They had also complained of risks concerning their health and safety in the workplace.
Amazon has been under scrutiny regarding its safety protocols amid the pandemic after the US politicians questioned Amazon's working practices.
The e-commerce retailer had witnessed a massive surge in its orders after the people were asked to stay indoors due to the pandemic. In order to cope up with the sudden rise in demand, the company had invested a huge sum in hiring around 175,000 employees to work in its US warehouse.
